A Day to the Lord, part 4

 “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives” 2 Peter 3:11. Since all of this is going to happen; since the coming of the Lord will be like a thief in the night, coming at a most unexpected time; and since there are billions of lost souls in this world, live your life as a godly person, in holiness. This is for the sake of those who don’t know Christ yet. Even though the world ridicules the church for some of the things we believe, they still believe we should live what we believe so they can see it for themselves. The world has never been impressed with the church’s worldliness. We only impress ourselves with our imitation of the world.
 

I have this theory: The reason many Christians give up living in a manner worthy of the calling on their life is because they have gotten caught up assessing time in the same way the world has. But our lifestyle should be just as the Lord suggests, Holy and Godly. If we get away from the reality that we are living in the last days and that the rapture of the Church is imminent, (meaning it could literally happen at any moment), we allow ourselves a lifestyle that is wholly incompatible with practical Christianity. 
 

The idea behind this is this: if you really believe He is coming soon, it will be evident by the way you live. To live recklessly and without regard to the things of God means you either could care less about the things of God, or you have bought into the idea that He has postponed His return and it probably won’t happen in your lifetime. The further away we see ourselves from the judgment seat of Christ, the more we allow this world to influence us, and we do things we would never do if we thought judgment was just around the corner. 

This entire chapter of 2 Peter is built upon the idea that a day to the Lord is a thousand years to us, and that we should not use the way we measure time to judge anything that the Lord said He would do. God’s promises are true regardless of what your experience is. 

Let’s take a look at verse 12: “… looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…” 2 Peter 3:12. If we are living in the fear of God, living the kind of Godly lives we should be living, we will simultaneously long for His return. We will hasten the coming of the day of God. 



88 Reasons Why

I remember well, back in 1988, when there was a real awakening to the possibility of the rapture of the church. A book called, “88 Reasons Why Jesus is Coming Back in 1988,” was selling by the millions. It piqued the interest of the church. There were certainly those who did not believe the book was correct in its predictions (they were right), but many people starting thinking, “What if it happens on the day this man predicted it would happen“? 
 

I remember a conversation I had with someone about the possibility of this happening. When the book first came out they were gung ho about it. They were sure its predictions were correct and they were really getting excited about it. But then one day about a month before the predicted date for the rapture, they said they no longer believe it was going to happen. They no longer believed the book’s predictions. I asked them why they changed their minds. It turned out what caused the change was that their kids were not yet saved – therefore, they did not want the prediction to be true. 

I think that would be quite a normal reaction, wouldn’t it? If you had kids that were not serving the Lord and yet you knew the end was near, you would probably want God to hold off His return for a while, right? I know, I would. The problem with that attitude is that verse 12 says we should hasten the Lord’s return. We should long for this whole calamity that fallen man has created to end, yet at the same time, we are torn because of what we’d like to see happen before He comes back

Continued tomorrow